The Weed Cougar varsity boys advanced to the Northern Section Division 5 Semifinals with a 68-48 victory over the Hamilton Braves Friday night in Weed.

The No. 3 seeded Cougars got off to a sloppy start, but finished strong to take down the sixth seeded Braves and secure a trip to Modoc to play for a trip to the section championship.

The Cougars got off to a quick 4-0 lead with Aidan Hagarty hitting four free-throws, but the Braves quickly responded with two buckets to square things up at 4-4. Edgar Casorla hit a bucket to give the Cougars back the lead, but a three pointer put the Braves on top 7-6. The trading of scores would prove to be a trend for the remainder of the first period with the teams finishing tied up 12-12.

In the second period, the Cougar offense got things flowing with Noah Traylor leading the charge scoring six points leading the Cougars on a 14-7 run that sent the game to half with a score of 26-19.

The third period opened with a Traylor bucket to extend the Cougar lead to nine points. The Braves responded with a three pointer to trim the deficit to six points. Traylor added another score, but the Braves responded with back to back scores to make it a 30-26 game. The Cougars responded with a quick 6-0 run to make it a 10 point game, but the Braves fought back with back-to-back scores to climb to within six points. This proved to be the last time the Braves would be within striking distance as the Cougars closed the period with a 5-0 run to make it a 41-30 game after three periods.

The Cougars kept their run rolling into the fourth period, pouring on a 14-4 run that pushed their advantage to 21 points and put the Braves away for good.

The Braves continued their aggressive play despite the deficit and play got rough in the end resulting in an intentional foul and technical foul against the Braves.

Hagarty poured in 19 points to lead all scorers in the game. Traylor added 19 points while Casorla scored 14 points for the Cougars.

The Cougars will now travel to Modoc to take on the SCL champion Braves for a fifth time this season. The Braves hold the advantage over the Cougars winning three of the previous meetings including a 66-53 victory when the teams last met on Feb. 13.

Tip-off for the semifinal game is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday night in Modoc.